Custom Game Engine
A custom game engine enables the use of new features, which in turn can help improve a game's review score. Selecting the right features for a good game combination is essential to reaching good score. This guide should help you plan your future game engines. Feature overview Some features are mutually exclusive. The tables below list the "group" for certain features. A game can only contain one feature from a given group. Therefore, when developing a new engine, you may wish to only select the best feature from each group. For example, refer to the Story/Quests table. You can choose Linear Story or Branching Story, but not both. However, you can add cutscenes to whichever story option you choose since it's a different group. Also 2D and 3D Graphics features have hidden stat - Tech level which is used to calculate amount of Tech and Design points of game and Technical expertise for game score. Tech level of the game is calculated as average of Tech levels of all 2D and 3D Graphics features in Custom Engine and Tech level of used Platform. So in order to get best Tech level of game you need to put only single Graphics feature that has highest Tech level. Some Features are researcheble after reaching certain Level of different Feature or Misson. New Level is reached by making new game. See more information about Level and Experiences at Experience page. Engine Gameplay Story/Quests Dialogue Level Design Artificial Intelligence World Design Graphics : All graphic features are mutually exclusive, except for Stereoscopic 3D. Sound Features strategies It would appear that all the features you add simply increase the benefit points which are used to calculate Tech + Design scores during development. Therefore there are no strategies or combinations to take into account. You want to add as many features as possible, without dropping the effectiveness (represented by a % above the feature list). Most features require a certain amount of time to implement in a game (the four controllers types do not appear to require any time). This is not a factor until you start adding more than one feature to the same category. For example, let's say you are developing a game using an engine with both Branching Storyline and Simple Cutscenes available. Both are in the Story/Quests category and are affected by the Story/Quests slider. The minimum amount of time for Story/Quests is sufficient for Simple Cutscenes. However, you need twice as much time for Branching Storyline and three times as much to include both. As you increase the Story/Quests slider (or decrease the other sliders), you'll see the percentage increase, until it goes away at 100%. Thus, more features require more time dedicated to the applicable slider. More advanced features require more time than less advanced features. If you have a lot of Story/Quest features available, but you're making a game that needs most of the time put into Engine and Gameplay, then you will need to choose what features to include and what to leave out. There is a maximum amount of features you can apply to each game size. For example, Medium games have less capacity for features than Large or MMO games. Therefore, it is a good idea not to cram lots of features into a smaller game. Combinations It is perfectly viable to add Mouse support to a console game, or Steering Wheel support to a Strategy game, there are no downsides to doing this except for the cost you pay to put the feature into your game. With this in mind, you should aim to put in as many features as you can. Category:Engine Category:Guides Category:Unlocks